


Warmth

by LacunaChronicles (BabylonsFall)



Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Introspection, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Angst, Minor Violence, Pre-Relationship, but only just let's be honest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:22:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29330007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabylonsFall/pseuds/LacunaChronicles
Summary: Some days, you just need to not be noticed while you deal with your hurts. And some days, it's not so bad to be seen.
Relationships: Male Detective/Mason (The Wayhaven Chronicles)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Warmth

**Author's Note:**

> I dunno. I have thoughts about the outfit switches your detectives can go through.

It was way too warm. The thought scratched at the back of his mind even as he continued watching the fire. He’d started it when he’d come into the common room - and, in his defense, he’d been freezing when he’d gotten in. A late spring cold snap had hit the town and his car’s heater was older than he was, or damn near.

Idly fidgeting with the sleeves of his hoodie, he debated tugging it off, if only to enjoy the glow of the fire for a little longer yet. The warehouse was quiet around him - too late in the evening and too early in the night for anything to rouse the team to more than routine, if that - and he was enjoying the almost isolated feeling the amber light from the fire caused - casting soft leathers and plush carpets into sharp relief and blurring out the edges.

He hadn’t had much time to come up here lately, and even when he had, more often than not he’d catch the team on their way out, if he caught them at all. And that was fine - everything was still settling and the growing pains of setting up a new base of operations were obvious. Still, sometimes it was nice to just...show up. And not have to worry about a welcome. It was a place he could disappear into without much thought, and one he was growing to cherish.

That said.

They didn’t screw around with the amenities. The room was large and open, and still, the fireplace managed to heat it all up without much trouble, and Dom wasn’t sure to be glad of it or not. Part of the temptation of a fireplace, sometimes, was the bite of cold just at your back. Or your partner’s back, if you managed to find some company.

He heard the click of the door behind him, and he dropped against the back of the couch, tilting his head back to get a look. Mason eyed him, raising an eyebrow from the doorway.

“When’d you get in, handsome?”

Dom hummed, then shrugged and straightened again. “Bout an hour ago.”

“Something wrong?” And the tone shift is slight - so thin and thready Dom’s sure it’ll melt away with the barest assurance. Dom can practically feel Mason’s gaze on him - isn’t disappointed when Mason rounds the couch, eyeing him almost carefully.

“Nah. Just didn’t feel like going home for a bit.” The strong bend of Mason’s shoulders bends as he accepts that answer, easy as anything, before dropping down on the couch beside him - legs splayed out in front of him like he owns the place.

There’s quiet then, Dom picking up one of his legs onto the couch to rest his chin on his knee, back to watching the fire, even as he knows Mason watches him. It’s curious now, though - the sharp edge to his gaze melted into easy observation. It’s a look Dom’s gotten used to over the past couple months; one he enjoys, if he lets himself think about it.

“Aren’t you hot?” He asks, after a long couple of moments. Dom raises an eyebrow, shifting his cheek to his knee to turn to look at him. Mason pauses, then scowls slightly. “Not like that. I’ve got eyes.”

Dom grins, even as Mason’s scowl deepens. “Yeah.” He offers, shrugging.

That gets him a look in return. Dom returns it steadily.

There’s a long couple of seconds where Dom’s sure Mason will drop it. It’s skirting around that thin-as-ice barrier they’ve cut out between themselves - one they crack and shake regularly, with sharp flirting and fleeting looks and soft touches they don’t admit to. But they haven’t crossed it yet. And Dom’s not sure Mason will here, either.

But he wouldn’t like Mason nearly as much if he didn’t surprise him sometimes.

“You’re sweating. Why’d you start the fire?”

“Well, it was cold when I got in.”

“...And you kept it going because…?”

“It’s pretty.”

That gets him a soft, half-frustrated growl, and Dom at least tries to hide his smile by turning back to the fire. Well. Maybe ‘tries’ is a strong word.

“You could take off your hoodie.” Is what Mason settles on.

“Mm. Little blunt for you, isn’t it?” Even as he says it, he finds himself reaching up to pull the neck closer around his skin. The silence that follows that movement is telling, in and of itself.

There’s quiet again - one even the crackle of the fire can’t quite fill, one that swallows the edge of the amber light, blurs the line between shadow and empty at the edges. There’s dots being connected, but Dom’s not entirely sure which ones - not entirely sure he wants to know either.

He hasn’t...talked about it with anyone. Not really. Tina noticed when his pressed shirts and slacks got switched for hoodies and jeans some days. But he’s pretty sure she chalked it up to late nights and rushed mornings. And it’s not like he’d completely switched his wardrobe out.

Just...some days he dug out the old college hoodies and broken in jeans. And if those days happened to be the ones his skin felt too tight around him, the ones he couldn’t quite catch his breath right, well. No one had noticed. And he hadn’t mentioned it.

But Mason’s noticing now. And that should feel just as suffocating.

And he knows why it doesn’t.

He’s almost startled when Mason speaks again, low, careful in that way he has that makes Dom remember what it’s like to be seen, “Do you want me to go?”

He shakes his head immediately, almost before Mason’s even done asking. “It’s not…” he sighs softly, wrapping his arms around his leg to bring it to his chest again, “It’s not you.” Dom just catches, out of the corner of his eyes, the slope to Mason’s shoulders as he settles back into the couch again.

“Then what is it?”

“Again, little blunt for you.” But Dom’s smiling now, even as Mason pulls a face at him. But...well. He did ask. And it was a...a thing. Between them. They didn’t ask. Until they did. And that space...the intent it took to cross it...he wouldn’t refuse Mason that.

“It’s...nice. Sometimes.” He pauses, turning the words over in his mouth. He hadn’t articulated this to himself in a long while, and definitely not in relation to everything that had happened, let alone out loud. “Not to be noticed. While you deal with your hurts.” And that’s exactly what it was.

Some small, animal pain still curled up in the back of his mind, screaming and screaming and screaming around a bloodied throat that could only gasp even as he choked. Wanting to run and hide in the dark of that warehouse and not draw anymore attention than it already had in its frailty.

Learning to live with that frailty again.

He had overcome Murphy. It hadn’t been easy, and he still remembers grey eyes, piercing against a backdrop he can’t see anymore, even in his nightmares. But he had done it. And he’d come out the other side. Some days, that was enough.

And some days...it just wasn’t. It wasn’t anything to cry over - at least, not anymore - and the bad days were fewer and farther between. But Dom was having to relearn how to be comfortable and confident in his own head. And he was getting there, slowly but surely, he was getting there.

“...Think you’d try harder not to be noticed there, handsome. A hoodie hardly does it,” And it’s weak, compared to his normal fare, but it’s also warm in a way that curls around the chill in his chest that the fire hadn’t been able to, and Dom can’t help but smile. “Come on. Roasting in here is just going to make us both miserable.” And then he’s standing in front of Dom, holding out a hand.

And they didn’t do this. That chasm between them echoing blindly into the space Mason’s offering. They didn’t do this.

But they cracked and twisted and pretended they didn’t when they pretended they weren’t looking. So Dom takes his hand, lets himself be pulled up. Lets himself lean into Mason’s space without hesitation.

And Mason holds them there, his free hand coming up to brush lightly down Dom’s neck in a way that should be...should be sharp. Should be wanting.

He finds comfort there instead. An acknowledgement. And a secret held.

“Nate bought that tea you like.” Weird, considering he hadn’t told Nate any such thing. Not that he’d put it past Nate to figure it out - lord knows he’d been at Dom’s place - office and apartment - enough to have picked up a pattern or two. But for one secret kept, Dom’s willing to hold another.

So, he just hums, and lets Mason tug him out of that too warm room.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! 💛 You can find my other Wayhaven stuff [here](https://chroniclesinlacuna.tumblr.com/)


End file.
